


The Devil in Your Eye

by Lady_in_Red



Series: Endgame [2]
Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Episode Fix-it, Episode Related, F/M, Gen, Internal Monologue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-14
Updated: 2019-05-14
Packaged: 2020-03-05 13:20:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18829486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_in_Red/pseuds/Lady_in_Red
Summary: Jaime's thoughts between Winterfell and King's Landing after The Last of the Starks





	The Devil in Your Eye

**Author's Note:**

> Title and lyrics from "The Devil in Your Eye" by Mumford and Sons, from _For the Throne_

_Tonight I can’t tell if it’s love or hate_   
_How smooth they are and quick to interchange_   
_Just some kind of love_   
_I'll be the devil in your eye_   
_If it's what you need to heal_   
_I'll be the devil in your eye_   
_If it'll change the way you feel_

  
The return journey to King’s Landing flies by. Perhaps because Jaime can barely sleep anymore. He rarely stops at night, falling asleep in the saddle and waking to his horse idly nibbling what little grass can still be found along the snowy verge of the Kingsroad.

The hollow feeling inside him has grown every day, every mile he travels south. When he closes his eyes, he sees Brienne breaking down. He didn’t say goodbye, didn’t turn back, and she didn’t chase him. Good for her. She deserves a man whose love doesn’t destroy everything it touches.

But he can’t regret his time in Winterfell. Can’t regret upholding the first vows he ever took. He faced certain death with foolhardy bravery. He was willing to accept justice for his actions, though Brienne spared him that. And with her at his side, he defended not just a king or queen, not just a city, but everyone in the realm from highest to lowest. He hopes that is what she remembers of him, not his selfishness in stealing a brief taste of happiness with her and then leaving her behind.

His course is set, for good or ill. Where his road ends, Jaime still isn’t sure. He thought the Army of the Dead was his worst nightmare, but this is far worse. His brother on one side, his sister on the other, the population of King’s Landing trapped between them.

_How do you know there is an afterwards?_

In the Riverlands, Jaime hears that Cersei executed Daenerys’s pretty advisor Missandei. The dragon queen will never forgive that. Jaime would have counseled her against it. Making Daenerys vengeful is the best way to ensure not only defeat, but annihilation.  

And if Cersei somehow wins, if she clutches the crown so hard that the North bleeds in her grip, Brienne and her precious Lady Sansa will die screaming. But first Tyrion will die, unless Jaime is there to stop it somehow. Cersei has never forgiven Tyrion for killing their father. Jaime hasn’t either, but he can’t help loving his siblings, no matter their sins.

Even though Cersei sent Bronn to kill them both. Jaime isn’t even sure she won’t have him killed the minute he steps through the gates.

He will never know, because he doesn’t make it that far. A Vale soldier recognizes him, and though Jaime tries to evade him, the soldiers run him down and strip off his glove. There’s no point pretending after that.

Perhaps he will see Tyrion one last time. He can warn them that Cersei has packed smallfolk into the courtyards of the Red Keep. Daenerys will have to burn the people she is trying to liberate if she wants the throne. Jaime doesn’t think she will care, but Tyrion will. Jon Snow will. Strange to think that he knows the minds of his sister’s enemies better than hers.

In some ways, the manacles are a relief. Guilt and grief have weighed him down for so long. Their physical weight, being chained to a post once again, reminds him of the man he once was, the man barely taken alive in the Whispering Wood.

He still had two hands. His father was alive. His children were alive. His sister was his world. The scowling, armored woman who wouldn’t even look at him was his enemy, not his lover. For that man, life was simple. That man doesn’t close his eyes and see bright blue eyes brimming with tears. He doesn’t hear her voice break with fear, for _him_ , as she begs him to stay.

Tyrion will come to him, as Jaime came to him when he was imprisoned, and he may have a better plan than appealing to Cersei’s love for her children again. That love killed Robert Baratheon, House Martell, Ellaria Sand and her daughters, House Tyrell, and the High Sparrow and his flock. That love crippled Bran Stark.

Perhaps this time, if the gods are just, Jaime Lannister will not have to weigh the lives of half a million people against one, and be forced to choose.

 


End file.
